Strachan's fire extinguished

GORDON STRACHAN has finally bowed to the inevitable, folding under the mounting pressure as defeat at home to Grimsby on Saturday left Coventry looking anything but contenders for a swift return to the Premier League....

GORDON STRACHAN has finally bowed to the inevitable, folding under the mounting pressure as defeat at home to Grimsby on Saturday left Coventry looking anything but contenders for a swift return to the Premier League.

Expectation was high that the Sky Blues would find little to trouble them in the Nationwide League for what would be nothing more than the briefest of stays outside the top flight, their home for the previous 34 years.

But despite all of his ferocious efforts from the touchline, the fiery Scot could only watch in frustration as his chosen team failed to maintain their Premiership status at the end of last season, and today he agreed to leave the club by mutual consent.

And after shelling out a smidgen over #5million to bring proven Division One marksman Lee Hughes to Highfield Road this summer, three defeats in their opening five games was hardly the start the City faithful were counting on.

Over the course of the season, Strachan may well have been able to use sheer force of personality to change things around.

But given the strength of feeling behind the hostility to the former Scotland international emanating from the stands on Saturday, it was perhaps no surprise that he decided enough was enough. It is only a game after all.

The angry scenes which followed the 1-0 reverse at home to the Mariners, with several fans having to be restrained by police, were a far cry from the success that the 44-year-old had enjoyed in his playing days.

Strachan was an attacking runner, a hurrier and scurrier who could pass as well, the key operator in the middle of the park.

He was the inspirational figure who helped Aberdeen break up the Old Firm monopoly in Scotland and enabled Howard Wilkinson to lay the ghost of Don Revie to rest.

After he was tempted south to Manchester United by Ron Atkinson in 1984, where he won the FA Cup the following year, a downward step to Division Two with Leeds seemed to be signalling the end in 1989.

Nothing could be further from the truth, as Strachan inspired the return to the glory days at Elland Road, culminating in the First Division championship season of 1992.

Naturally his attentions soon turned to a future inside the game and with his switch to Coventry in March 1995 as assistant to Atkinson, it seemed that, at last, the dream team was in place to turn the Sky Blues into a force in the top flight, rather than perennial relegation strugglers.

But those hopes never came to fruition, even when Strachan, OBE, took sole charge soon after, surviving relegation on the final day in the Scots' first full season at the helm.

Never one to mix his words, Strachan often found himself in hot water with the powers that be, although always receiving the full backing of his chairman.

Indeed it was not as if he had to work on a shoe-string, with money always seemingly available to strengthen the squad.

And when the end finally came to his six-year tenure, it was, in truth, an ugly departure for the man who was brought to the Midlands promising so much, yet failed to deliver.